hydraulic clutch MY EJ20T conversion

cruzingbrumby · Post by **cruzingbrumby** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:06 am

In relation to other cable clutch thread, how can you get it to fit in. Was looking at my mates the other day and he modifed wrx box to take cable clutch. but there is just no room for the master cylinder because of the dump pipe. I found a nice pic on USMB of a pedal box mod, but for LHD so not really comparable. If a 2 inch lift kit is fitted is there enough room to fit it ?

tim_81coupe · Post by **tim_81coupe** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 6:37 pm

With a 2" lift kit you should easily be able to fit the WRX master cylinder in, you'll have to enlarge the hole that the speedo cable normally goes through to about 33-34mm. Then flatten the firewall area a little with a knockometer and then use the heatshield retainer plate as a template to drill the mounting holes. Cut a U shaped plate to brace the firewall from the inside or use large washers (or the heatshield retainer!). It will fit there, one of the bolts will seem to be obscured by the brake master cylinder but it can still be done up.

As for clearance to the dump pipe, I found in my unlifted GLF this was a problem whereas in my 4" lifted wagon it's miles away. You might still find it a little close for comfort, however I can say from experience that about 1" clearance between the cylinder and the exhaust pipe has little or no effect on clutch actuation. If you're worried about this, heatwrap the dump pipe.

stiute · Post by **stiute** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:20 am

I have just done the conversion and an engineer i met had done a few before. He modified a toyota hiace brake master cyl that bolted to the side if the pedal box, that is used for my clutch master cyl. I then used a bugeye wrx clutch resivour to supply the master cyl with fluid. Havent driven the car yet but it seems to bleed up ok.

cruzingbrumby · Post by **cruzingbrumby** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:15 am

I am keen to see your setup, I am about to do exactly what you have done, with the same motor and all. Have you got any pics that you can show me, i have seen the ones on rs lib already. What steering rack did you use ?

stiute · Post by **stiute** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:01 am

Havent got any more pics at the moment. Will try to take a pic of the clutch master cyl but it is very tight up there bolted to the pedal box. Used an MY power rack and reflared and bent the wrx lines to make them fit the rack. Lots of mucking around and refitting to get the lines to sit right and clear the 3 inch stainless dump pipe. The conversion has turned out a lot more time consuming than I first thought. The fun of conversions! Just tell me what pics you are chasing and i will do my best to help out. Cheers.

buddah · Post by **buddah** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:17 pm

stiute wrote:Havent got any more pics at the moment. Will try to take a pic of the clutch master cyl but it is very tight up there bolted to the pedal box. Used an MY power rack and reflared and bent the wrx lines to make them fit the rack. Lots of mucking around and refitting to get the lines to sit right and clear the 3 inch stainless dump pipe. The conversion has turned out a lot more time consuming than I first thought. The fun of conversions! Just tell me what pics you are chasing and i will do my best to help out. Cheers.

I got the same problem.

Would be great if you or anyone else could post some pics.

I've snapped three clutch cables in the last couple of years. I've finally got a system that I think will hold for a while, but I will need to upgrade eventually.
And my wagon is lowered so there's no way there will be enough clearance from the dump pipe.

Help please?

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 4:27 pm

im confused Tim,

i just pulled the clutch master cylinder out of the GC8 wrx 1/2 cut and the pedal boxwith the threads on them.

So do i;

1. fit the wrx pedal setup and the clutch master cylinder

or

2. do i fit the wrx clutch master cylinder and then somehow run the push/pull mechanism into the brumby pedal box off where the old cable used to attach?

cheers for any help fellas.

Will post photos when i have successfully finished.

cheers

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:57 pm

You mount the clutch master cylinder in the firewall.
You leave all the standard MY pedal box and clutch pedal in place.
Remove the clutch cable and ditch it.
Weld or securely bolt a U shaped piece of metal to the side of the clutch pedal so that it lines up with the master cylinder push rod.
Drill a hole thru the U shape for the pin to locate.
Put the mount for the push rod around the U shaped bit of metal and put the pin in.
And your done.

I have experience doing it to 2 L series, I beleive it's exactly the same for MY but the U shaped bracket will probably differ slightly.

I'll see if I can grab some photos of mine.

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:26 am

cheers,

photos would be awesome for a muppet like me.

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:51 pm

Ok,

despite no photos i think i have it. after a bit of scratching of the head and putting things in place i think i understand.

Due to the nature of the new hydraulic clutch setup, obviously it needs to be a push style setup (as opposed to the pull setup of the old cable clutch).

Therefore the hydraulic needs to be located at the bottom of the pedal below the pivot point.

Thus you mean i need to weld a type of u shape that will extend upwards and slightly towards the firewall so as when you apply pressure to the clutch the rod goes in and whammo you have a hydraulic.

Yes?

Well it made sense to me.

Pics to come soon.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:20 pm

Yes that sounds right.
I put my camera on charge the other day cause it was flat when I went to take the pics, and then promptly forgot about it. Gimme a bit and I'll try to get them up tonight.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:32 pm

This is taken with my camera on the carpet looking directly up the clutch pedal. I made my U shape out of a small piece of 40x40 galv box section with one side cut out of it. This is in my RX sedan and you can see I've used two nuts and two bolts to connect it to the clutch pedal. In the wagon it's welded - doesn't really make any difference solong as it doesn't fall off.
Mine is obviously a little close to my speedo cable! Didn't know that, I'll have to move the speedo cable slightly sometime soon

This setup works brilliantly, I've covered an absolute buttload of kms in the car in the ~12 months she's been driving and the clutch pedal would have been used about a billion times without any issues at all. Roughly 500kms a week on average - it's my daily work car.
One thing is to make sure you adjust the thread on the push rod before you drill the hole for the pin to go through - you need to make sure you have plenty of adjustment left for fine tuning it after you drill that hole.

Optionally you could also brace the metal at the top and bottom with a triangular bit which I thought of doing but it's perfectly fine without it. Just don't use anything thinner than what I did.

buddah · Post by **buddah** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:28 pm

Dunno if anyone on here had the same issue as me. But as my beast is not raised it's lowered there's not enough room for the master cylinder to fit on the outside of the firewall because of the dump pipe from the turbo. So there are two options a for hydraulic system.

1. Put the master cylinder on the inside, attached to the pedal box by making a reverse system so the master cylinder sits above and in front of the fulcrum of the pedal. like this;
http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2472947

Obviously the easiest thing to do would be to try and use the original pedal box to set up a similar mechanism

or

2. Use the same cable system and run it to a lever that actuates the master cylinder somewhere else in the engine bay. Like this;
http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?p=37339289

Which i think would be a bit easier.

However I have still chosen to go with the cable set up for the moment (due to lack of funds) and have come up with something quite satisfying. I reinforced the pedal box, re-drilled the whole in the firewall so the cable runs straighter from the box, to reduce drag. Got a custom cable and casing made as thick as could fit. And attached a spring to the clutch fork to take pressure off the cable.

It works a dream, as easy to push in as a hydraulic system

I'll post some pics if anyone's interested?

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:11 pm

Hi fellas,

Thanks Andrew for your photos, it sort of took a bit of the stretch of the imagination for me to picture it from looking up from the floor, but it gave me the general idea.

I spent a few hours tinkering around and this is what i came up with;

small 11cm long square tube piece that acts as the bracket

another photo of said job (different angle)

Photo of what the hydraulic unit looks like on the engine side of the firewall

Photo of bracket in place on the pedal

and another a bit closer

So thoughts fellas?

Obviously i haven't got the engine in so i cant really test it out, but i thought you might have some feedback to give me on the setup.

cheers

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:55 pm

Looks like it should do the trick. My piece of metal is shorter than that and not braced at the top like yours - yours should be stronger there than mine. Looks like you've only got the 1 bolt holding it to the pedal at the bottom there, definitely need to secure it with a second bolt further up otherwise it will just pivot back when you depress the pedal. Otherwise great job!.
Buddah - not sure how your car being lowered would effect the position of the dump pipe in the engine bay? Surely your engine sits in the stock standard position on the crossmember? How exactly is your car lowered? Normally it's by suspension mods which would not effect the dump pipe position.
My sedan is not raised and I'm using the dump pipe complete with all it's heat shields - it all fits up nicely.

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 7:34 pm

hi fellas,

finalised the installation.

if you want to see the finished job go to wrx brumby in "My Car"

buddah · Post by **buddah** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:05 pm

AndrewT wrote: Buddah - not sure how your car being lowered would effect the position of the dump pipe in the engine bay? Surely your engine sits in the stock standard position on the crossmember? How exactly is your car lowered? Normally it's by suspension mods which would not effect the dump pipe position.
My sedan is not raised and I'm using the dump pipe complete with all it's heat shields - it all fits up nicely.

Do you have an L series?

Mine's an 84, slighltly less room perhaps?

As stated on page 1 by tim_81coupe the dump pipe comes quite close to the firewall at stock height. And he found it difficult to see a solution.

The fact that "it's lowered" was a statement about the fact that it's street driven, and will never be raised. So having the master cyl on the outside of the firewall will is not an easy option or something that I could do when I raised it. However after looking at subiies set up pics it seems possible. But i still reckon it would be easier to run the cable to the master cyl somewhere else in the engine bay.

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:18 pm

Well I thought this was all taken care of, however now that the engine is in and I am up to the stage of adjusting stuff I dont seem to be able to get enough throw out of the bracket that I made up. The actual arcthat the pedal pivots through means the lower down the pedal you are the more throw you get, but because I have mounted the cylinder through the firewall in pace of the clutch cable I dontget enough throw because it is so far up the pedal. Seems like back to the drawing board!

Buddah: to answer your question, I have lowered my engine bay (both crossmembers) by 2 inches to fit eveything under the bonnet and various other reasons. I am running the EJ20T in a brumby.